Detroit sits in the basement in the Atlantic division, and are just one point ahead (but with one more game played) of the New York Islanders for the bottom of the Eastern Conference.

The changing of the guard in Detroit is in motion, but the sophomore slumps from Tomas Jurco, Riley Sheahan and Dylan Larkin haven’t expedited the process.

On the other side of the dot is Taylor Hall and the New Jersey Devils. Hall, the massive off-season blockbuster acquisition, is sidelined for the near future, however.

The scoring will need to come from the likes of Travis Zajac, Adam Henrique, Mike Cammalleri and Kyle Palmeri.

Detroit Red Wings

Pavol Datsyuk is now gone from the Red Wings organization, and it won’t be long until current Wings’ captain, Henrik Zetterberg, is gone as well.

The 36-year old Zetterberg is still producing, leading Detroit in scoring with 12 points in 19 games played.

Gustav Nyquist is playing well after a disappointing season a year ago, tying Zetterberg for the team lead with 12 points of his own.

The Wings need other youngsters, such as star Dylan Larkin, to pick up his pace if they want to crawl out of the hole they’ve put themselves in.

Thomas Vanek, a veteran off-season gamble signee after two poor years in Minnesota, was performing at a point-per-game pace with four goals and eight points in eight games before going down to a hip injury.

He’s back now and should be able to help boast the offense for the low-scoring Wings team.

Jimmy Howard has stole the show in net for the Wings this season, starting the year as the back-up to Petr Mrazek but now having appeared in 10 games to Mrazek’s 11.

On the season, Howard owns a .940 SV% and 1.85 GAA with a 4-5-0 record. Mrazek has a similar record at 4-5-1, but with just a .901 SV% and a 3.16 GAA.

New Jersey Devils

Taylor Hall was acquired in the off-season in exchange for defenseman Adam Larsson, and the deal looks to be paying dividends for both teams.

Hall leads the team in scoring with 12 points in 14 games, howeve has been sidelined for the past four and three of those have resulted in losses for New Jersey.

Hall is expected to miss 3-4 weeks with a left knee injury, and his absense will certainly be missed by a Devils’ squad who finished dead last in goals per game a season ago with just 2.22 on average.

This year, they’re averaging the same mark at 2.22, which is good for 26th currently, and that was with Hall in the lineup for the bulk of the games played.

The scoring will need to fall on the shoulders of the veterans in the lineup, namely Travis Zajac, Mike Cammelleri, PA Parenteau, Adam Henrique and Kyle Palmeri.

Palmeri led the Devils in scoring a year ago with 30 goals and 57 points in 82 games. Henrique was second on the team with 30 gaols of his own and 50 points, but the two have just eight and seven points this season, respectively.

About Alex McPhee

New to Cappers Picks but NOT new to making free sports predictions. An avid sports better with some solid success, Alex is a former high level athlete in multiple sports and has been a sports writer in the past with multiple sites before we roped him into sharing his free picks on our site. He’s been a hockey scout, coach, manager and played baseball at an elite level until he went to University. Combine that with prior experience playing poker for a living, his intuition might be picks that you want to follow! Good luck.

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